I'd like to ask someone professional about the effects of HT speed. Currently I run an Athlon64 X2 processor with an HT speed of 2025 MHz and I'd like to know the job of that link and maybe some performance deltas or stats.

In an AMD-based system, HyperTransport is the link from the CPU to the rest of the world, and (in a system with more than one CPU socket) the link between the CPU sockets. All of your I/O goes over HT links.

Except for certain corner cases (e.g. heavily loaded multi-socket servers, high-end SLI rigs) I have a hard time imagining HT being the limiting factor. You're far more likely to be limited by CPU, GPU, or RAM performance.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

crazybus wrote:The HyperTransport bus speed does significantly impact integrated graphics performance, being the connection between the chipset and system memory, but that's probably not an issue for you.

I see, but I was just looking for information and any bit will help make me comprehend this enigma.

FYI, the HyperTransport link in a modern AMD system is conceptually similar to the FSB (front-side bus) in Intel or older AMD systems. But HyperTransport is more sophisticated and you can have multiple channels I think so different subsystems won't necessarily congest each other unlike a FSB.

"The X4 9850, though, features some more technical improvements over the lower-end models, and not just a faster core clock speed. Like the Phenom 9500 and 9600--and past AMD chip designs as well--the X4 9850 has a built-in memory controller regulating the speed at which data moves between the processor and the system memory. It also relies on the HyperTransport 3.0 standard, which links the processor to the various other components in your system, such as the PCI-Express data path for graphics processing. The memory controller and the HyperTransport clock in the earlier Phenom chips came in at 1.8GHz and 3.6GHz, respectively. The Phenom X4 9850 received boosts to 2.0GHz on the memory controller and on HyperTransport to 4.0GHz."